The Halifax Regional Municipality and IOTA Studios are introducing a new program of temporary public artworks within the redeveloped Cogswell District titled InterCHANGE. New temporary artworks are set to launch Summer/Fall 2025, in partnership with a slate of five artists, selected by an independent jury of artists, curators, and cultural workers.
Learn more about the Cogswell District Redevelopment Project HERE.
Read the full call for submissions HERE.
Meet the Artists
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Zeta Paul (@zetapaulart) is a L’nu/Settler illustrator and interdisciplinary artist. Born and raised in Kjipuktuk, Mi’kma’ki (Halifax, Nova Scotia.) Zeta attended NSCAD University until she decided to put her work into action, she now is focusing on indigenous book illustration, works such as “Muinji Asks Why”, “The Friendship Centre”, and soon to be completed “The Indigenous Kids Book of Canada” and “Borderline.” Zeta aspires to create engaging imagery that is exciting, immersive, and thought provoking, that holds deeper messages about culture and identity.
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Letitia Fraser (@letitiasnfraser) is an interdisciplinary artist, whose work centres around her experience as an African Nova Scotian woman, growing up in the province’s Black communities of North Preston and Beechville. Descending from a long line of artists, her creative instincts were nurtured early in life. Through a combination of painting and textiles, she unearths previously untold narratives and pays homage to her community’s history of quilting. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the 2018 Nova Scotia Talent Trust RBC Emerging Artist Award and was recently longlisted for the 2022 Sobey Art Award. Her work is included in several private and public collections including the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Scotiabank, the Canada Council and the Wedge Collection.
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Carmahn McCalla (@carmahnm.art) is an African Nova Scotian and Jamaican visual artist whose work explores Black identity, nature, and the mystical. Rooted in digital illustration, her multidisciplinary practice spans animation, painting, graphic design, and web design. Largely self-taught with formal studies at Dalhousie University, NSCAD, Athabasca University, and OC Art Studios, Carmahn has exhibited work in festivals, businesses, and public projects. Her illustrations and animations appear in books, theatre, and murals, all reflecting a commitment to celebrating underrepresented voices.
Lou Sheppard (@shep_shape) works in interdisciplinary audio, performance and installation based practices. His work responds to the social and material histories of sites: bodies, and environments. His work questions and disrupts systems of power by deconstructing the language, architectures, genealogies, and taxonomies that hold these systems in place.Lou has created commissioned works for galleries and sites across Canada, including The Banff Centre, at The Art Gallery of York University, The Confederation Centre for the Arts and the Toronto Biennial, as well as internationally, at Kumu Kunstimuuseum in Estonia, in the Antarctic Biennial, and at Titanik Gallery in Finland. Lou has participated in numerous residencies, including Rupert in Lithuania, the International Studio Curatorial Program in Brooklyn, NY., La Cité des Arts in Paris, and as participant and faculty at The Banff Centre. He has been longlisted for the Sobey Art Award in 2018, 2020 and 2021. Lou is a settler on the traditional and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq in Mi’kma’ki/Nova Scotia.
Daramfon Morgan (@DCM ART CREATIONS) is a Nigerian Canadian visual artist, muralist, and digital painter based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. As a Black and African Nova Scotian artist, his work blends contemporary storytelling with vibrant cultural symbolism drawn from African folktales, Caribbean traditions, and local Black histories. Through DCM ART CREATIONS, Morgan has exhibited across Nova Scotia and continues to expand his practice into public art, licensing, and large-scale installations.
His visual language is rooted in bold color palettes, surreal textures, and layered composition. Whether through murals, fine art prints, or digital design, Daramfon uses art to honour generational memory, reclaim erased narratives, and celebrate the resilience of African diasporic communities.
With a background in biology and an MBA in project management, Daramfon merges creative storytelling with professional execution—often collaborating across disciplines, including youth programming, community-led housing, and cultural revitalization. He is deeply passionate about using public space to reflect the strength, beauty, and dignity of communities too often left out of dominant histories.
Meet the Jury
The 2025 slate of InterCHANGE artists was selected by an independent jury of artists, curators, and cultural workers. We are so grateful for their artistic vision and insight leading this pilot project.
Pamela Edmonds is the Curator and Director of @dalhousie_art_gallery, and centers cultural equity and interdisciplinary dialogue in contemporary art.
Kris Reppas (He/Him) @kris_reppas is a Two-Spirit, Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk), and mixed European artist currently residing in Kjipuktuk. His beadwork includes a variety of techniques including flatwork, Haundenosaunee raised beadwork, and loom work. His priority is to create work that’s tactile, to promote conversations through feeling and gathering.
Vanessa ‘Nessy’ Thomas @nessyrt is an experimental digital and mixed media artist from Preston, Nova Scotia.
Megan Samms @livetextiles (they/she) is an L’nu and Nlha7kápmx visual artist, Indigenous agriculturalist, beekeeper, and community worker who, drawing from her varied practices, works collaboratively with mediums to articulate story, messages, and continued dialogue within their respective historic and contemporary place-based contexts. She’s known for weaving and natural dye work, but uses photo, and performance interventions to remember and triangulate entangled presence and relationality with place and time. Samms is a collaborator and is currently an apprentice in Ancestral Skin Marking with Dion Kaszas, Keith Callihoo, and Jerry Evans. She lives in her home community in one of their two ancestral territories: Katalisk, Ktaqmkuk, Mi’kma’ki, Wabanaki Territory.
Photo credit: Pilvi Keto. Headshot.
Elyse Moir is a visual artist and educator from K’jipuktuk/Halifax. Since graduating from NSCAD University in 2015, Elyse has developed a professional practice as an independent artist working in various mediums including painting, illustration, print, textiles, sound & video, and public art. Elyse also works in the community as a youth worker, program coordinator, and joyful karaoke host/DJ.